Instructional Design and Tech News

Nancy joins the CTTL from Kennesaw State College in Georgia. She has over 10 years experience in instructional technology and design. She enjoys collaborating with faculty to explore ways to use technology to engage students in their learning. You may have met her at the Tech Petting Zoo on Convocation Day, or seen her around campus. Come by and say hi or Email Nancy.

Smart Search helps you (or students) find exactly what you need in a course without having to remember the exact wording. It uses AI to understand the context of a search query, giving more accurate and relevant results from course pages, announcements, discussion prompts, and assignments. This means people can find what they're looking for much faster.

The Discussion Summary feature helps instructors quickly understand what's happening in class discussions. It uses AI to summarize the key themes and questions from a discussion, so you can easily see what students are engaging with and what topics need more attention, which is great for large classes.

You can enable these features (or not) in Course Settings>Feature Options. Reach out to us at the CTTL for brainstorming or help with these optional features.

What we are reading: this article from Flower Darby on ways to craft assignments for authentic learning and assessment in the age of generative AI.
Many thanks to art professor Terry Cunniff for sharing this with us. Image Credit: Gemini

You might also want to check out the Stoplight Framework for AI Usage Policies presented at District Opening Day by Jessica Hurless, Sima Karve, and Andrea Fuentes.

We hear you... so many Skyline College instructors use Padlet and pay for it themselves, or struggle with the limited free version. Good news: CTTL now has paid licenses available for our instructors! Padlet is a versatile and user-friendly online tool that allows educators to create a collaborative digital canvas where students can post text, images, videos, and links to share ideas, brainstorm, and showcase their work. It embeds beautifully in Canvas, offers substantive interaction with instructor involvement, and even has a replacement for Jamboard. Contact Nancy Somjit or sign up for Padlet here.

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Location: Building 5, Room 118, or online https://skylinecollege.edu/cttl

Phone: 650-738-7080